I am Jack.  I'm 10 years old, will be 11 years old on December 21st of this year.  I live in Sandusky, Ohio. I was born here.

Today is my first day of fifth grade.  I hope I have a great school year.

I hope I have the chance to make new friends.  I have some, just not that many.  Doesn't help that  I have a stupid first name.  My dumb dad (who left us when I was small) wasn't thinking when he picked my name out.

Jack Daniel.

What made it worse: he drank.  He drank all the time.  When I tell people my name, I tell them to call me J.D. instead.  I hate my first and middle names.

I hate being named after an alcoholic drink!  If you ask me, I think that was pretty stupid on my dad's part. 

We don't hear from him any more: I don't even know if he's dead or alive.  No phone calls or cards on birthdays or holidays like Christmas or Easter.  It really sucks.  

I am the oldest of four kids in my family.  I have two younger brothers: Chase Adkins (8) and Taylor Grant (6), and one little sister: Carollyn Michelle (3).  

I love my brothers and sister very much, especially Chase.  Chase has special needs.  He is in a wheelchair.  He cannot walk.  He was born with something called cerebral palsy that damaged his brain and made his arms and legs stiff.  

It makes me sad that Chaser (my name for him) can't walk or do a lot of things, but I try to help Mama take care of him.  He's really easy to care for and he never teases me or calls me names.  He's very sweet.  

It's kind of cool going places with Chase because we don't have far to park (we can park in the handicapped parking space).  We can get first in line for any ride at Cedar Point.  And whenever we go to a concert, we always get to meet the stars.  

The last concert we went to was Shania Twain.  We got to get backstage passes and got to meet her in person.  She is very pretty and very nice.  She signed my favorite baseball cap and a picture; we even got to pose for a picture with her!

I have it framed on my bedroom wall.  It is so neat to look at! :)

If it were not for Chase, we wouldn't have even gotten to do this, so I owe all my thanks to him!  :)

I like to do many things.  I love to go to concerts (country music is my favorite!), play baseball, soccer, football, foosball, hacky-sack, dominoes, and play with my toy trains,  I like to ride my bike, go skateboarding or roller-blading and swimming, skiing.

As you can see, I'm very active!

When not playing sports, I like to go camping, read, play on the computer and draw.  I also write stories, mainly about sports.  Mama says I'm very good, that I should write a book.

I don't think I'm that good yet.  Mama's sweet.  :)

Right now, I don't have the time: I'm too busy playing!  LOL

Well, about time to turn in this assignment, so I'm gonna finish up so I can give this to the teacher.  Her name is Miss Yamaguchi.  She's Japanese and very pretty.  She seems nice.  :)

I hope you enjoyed reading about me.  This is Jack Daniel Hoskins saying so long!  

~Jack Daniel (but PLEASE call me J.D.).  :)